My food is "just"! Just meaning honest, no bullshit! It is also easy to prepare, you don't need to be a pro to cook my recipes - and most important: its all about taste - they are delicious.

For the past twenty years, I have been travelling across Asia, Africa and the Americas, collecting amazing impressions on the local foods of so many different cultures. In my recipes, you will find those influences and flavors which I collected during all those years.

Barbieri? That was my great grandmother - she was a star in the kitchen. Why I named this blog after her? Well, her name just sounds better.

As I am travelling a lot, you will find suggestions of restaurants on this blog as well.

Mar 26 japanese steak tatar

This delicious mix of ingredients is common in Japan, on my trips to this wonderful country I smell it every day and everywhere - love it!

As good as a classic steak Tatar is, this one is special, and rich. It takes some time and effort to cut the meat, but believe me it is worth it. And on top it is slightly grilled in the oven, which makes it even more special.

I serve a simple sesame-lemon salad made of young spinach – more about this one at a later point.

Ingredients for 4 people:

600g beef fillet

4 TBS soy sauce

3 TBS sesame oil

½ lemon (juice)

1 TS wasabi

2 TBS white sesame seeds

50g shiitake mushrooms

100g butter

Salt

Preparation:

Cut the meat with a big, sharp knife to tiny pieces, as tiny as possible. Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, lemon juice and wasabi powder (or paste) and mix well with your hands, then set aside into the fridge.

Roast the white sesame seeds without any fat in a frying pan at medium heat, for about five minutes. Keep some seeds for decoration purposes. Mortar the roasted seeds together with a TS of sesame oil in order to get a paste.

With little sesame oil, shortly fry the mushrooms in a frying pan, then dispose of the fat and water and cut the mushrooms into small pieces.

Now mix together the mushrooms, the paste and the soft butter, add some salt and mix well to receive an evenly smooth aromatic butter.

Now press the meat into shape (use a ring) and add the soft butter on top. Then place into the preheated oven (grill function) for just about two minutes, until the butter has melted.

Sprinkle some of the leftover sesame seeds on top, and if you wish, add a raw egg yolk.